Bathing In Milk With New IT Band Moxi

August 23rd, 2017

Talented, stylish and influential, with their own customised living feline mascot to match, premiering their latest video release on Pop Matters, and Huffington Post, duo bandAndy Toy and Anna Toy, going by the moniker Moxi, introduce their new wave superlative, dreamy, electro sound, being described as indie dream pop. Lead singerAnna Toy put us fully in the know of the highs, the lows and the driving forces behind this new ‘It’ bandMoxi.

You recently did a Milk Bathe shoot, how did it all go? Who was the photographer?

AT: Yes, I took a bath in Milk for our music video shoot for Figures Bathed in Light. The video is very dreamy and a little creepy and the Milk Bath was super fun to shoot. We shot the video with our dear friends from Finders Pictures, Grant Jensen and Matt Champagne. They are next level. We were so lucky to work with them. The song is about a terrible car crash we survived together so the video is a dreamy representation of life and death as well as the in between.

Where did the title ‘Figures Bathed With Light’ derive from?

AT: The title track was inspired by one of our favorite books “Night Film” by Marisha Pessl, a sort of psychological horror/mystery thriller. In the novel, there is a character who writes and directs horror movies, and “Figures Bathed in Light” is the title of one of his movies. The book is amazing you should all read it. The lyrics to our song are about a car crash we were in and the feelings I had of something trying to take Andy away from me that day.

What are some of the best things that are coming out of Indie/electro bandsmusic in LA right now?

AT: Gosh, there are so many! HOTT MT, Goon, Midnight Faces, just to name a few!

You’ve been featured in Vogue Italia, and your songs have already been featured on Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Made In Chelsea, which must have been a surreal moment for you, but will you cameo on any reality shows as well?

AT: Oh wow, we don’t have any plans to but we’d definitely jump at the opportunity.

Do you feel any particular pressures as a female artist or a need to conform to a particular look from reasons that are more gender focused?

AT: I really love this question because I think it’s an important topic to address as a female artist. Yes is the answer. I think just as a female, take out the artist part, I’ve felt pressure. I’ve felt even more pressures as a female artist. I think in American culture especially we’re taught from such a young age that the way we look as girls and the way we present ourselves is extremely important, much more so then it is for our male counterparts. We grow up looking at almost every pop media outlet and see so many images of one body type that a lot of women just don’t and will never look like, and I just see that as a dangerous thing. And I want to be clear that there’s nothing wrong with this body type either, some women are naturally born looking like the “American model” body type and they are completely stunning just as they are. But what bothers me is that our popculture seems to only promote one image for women to measure up to and its unrealistic for most of us.

I will say that it’s gotten a lot better even in the last few years, as we’re seeing a lot more diversity in body types being put into popculture and popular media- but it’s still a problem. That being said, I used to feel a lot more of this pressure and it bothered me a lot more. But a few years ago I just decided I was done caring and putting up with it. I’m constantly trying to be a better version of myself, and I think that’s all we can do and should be expected to do. It’s liberating to realize you don’t have to be apart of a sexist culture. We each have the choice to participate or to stand up to it and demand something different. I could go on and on, on this subject I feel very strongly about women’s issues. In closing, please ladies (and everyone) just be you, you don’t need to change a thing.

What are the biggest shows that you have done so far?

AT: Probably opening for Gungor at the El Rey, or the small west coast run we did with Sir Sly.

There is a very spiritual basis for this EP was this the initial plan?

AT: This wasn’t necessarily the plan but we did approach the writing for the EP knowing that we wanted to write a lot about life and death and supernatural things. We are spiritual people so I think it just comes out naturally in our music.

As a songwriter do you often have find that particular breaking point in your mind or life before you can get that emotion across or does this come more easier to you? You hear all the time from celebrities that at the most defining moments they channel this energy and use it as fuel but do you find it comes to you more easily?

AT: Well honestly for me, daily life is a bit of a struggle. I don’t want to sound crazy or super emo but I’m such a highly sensitive and emotional person that I have a lot of ups and downs during a day and I have to try hard to stay out of what I like to call the twisty place. So I don’t really think I have to get to a particular breaking point to feel like I need to write and get stuff out. Although I have had a few extra hard times in my life where I did write some of the best music.

Will you be releasing an album as well?

AT: We are released our 6 song EP Figures Bathed in Light on August 18th!! No plans to release a full length anytime soon but one day!

Were you the driving force behind the conceptualisation of the artwork on this EP?

AT: I absolutely love being involved in every single part of the Moxi brand. When I write a song I instantly envision what the artwork will look like, what the music video will be, and everything in between. With this EP I felt like all the songs went together so perfectly as far as theme and artistic direction so it was so fun to dream up the videos and artwork. We are so lucky to have so much creative freedom and I felt like my dreams came true with the videos we made for this record. Get ready they are going to blow people’s minds.

When you worked with Bobby Hartry did he actually write and produce the songs?

AT: Andy and I write the songs and then bring them to Bobby for final touches. Bobby always helps with lyric touchups as well as production. He’s so great to work with and always respects the art but helps us take it to the next level.

AT: Of course!! How could we not be? We’re so lucky to work with Bobby. He’s a genius.

For this EP you retreated to a cabin, is this where much of the inspiration for your writing process comes from?

AT: We did retreat to a cabin in the mountains of Big Bear to write the bulk of the songs for this EP. It was definitely inspiring and creatively refreshing to get out of the city and focus completely on the music. We had a blast and definitely had some late night creative bursts fueled by chartreuse.

Now, we need only to look at your social media to know that it is without doubt, that we must discuss, the infamous black cat #paclew?

AT: Oh yes Mr. Lewis is our adorable black cat. We love him more than most things in life. We rescued him from a shelter 5 years ago but I always like to say that he rescued us. He’s totally spoiled and also is the partial inspiration for our single Paclew. I love to post about him on social media, probably too much. Sorry not sorry.

Earlier I asked you if you planned to cameo in any reality shows, but are there any plans to do a reality show on the cat mascot? Enquiring minds would like to know?

AT: Oh wow like a reality show about Lewis? Holy crap I’ve never thought about this. I think that would be a great idea someone pitch it to E network.

AT: If I have to pick one right now I’d say when we released our very first single as a band which was Terrible Disguise. We’d never released anything and when we put the song up it got so much attention and blog coverage. I remember just googling the song and looking at all the blogs writing about it and I just felt so excited and energized for our future.